Kindergarten

It All Starts with Kindergarten…

Kindergarten Readiness

Five years old on or before September 1, 2018

Kindergarten Round Up (for 2018-2019 School Year)

Wednesday, June 6, 2018; 8:00-11:00AM

Reading & Writing

Kindergarten uses the Wonders Reading Series by McGraw-Hill. Over the course of the year, all students will begin to read, write, and advance their existing skills. The Wonders Reading Series consists of a rich array of “read-aloud” stories, nonfiction, and poems combined with phonics and writing, as well as listening and speaking activities. By the completion of the year, the students will:

Learn and identify all 26 letters

Learn how to blend sounds to read and how to segment sounds to spell

Read 54 high frequency words

Apply comprehension skills and strategies to leveled reading books

Learn vocabulary and fluency skills

Phonemic Awareness

Kindergarten uses the Michael Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Program. Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes (individual sounds) in spoken words. This daily program teaches children to isolate sounds, manipulate the sounds, and blend and segment the sounds into spoken and written words. Others skills this program exposes to the children are rhyming, identifying onsets, identifying final and medial phonemes, substituting phonemes, and adding and deleting phonemes.

Phonics

Kindergarten uses Jolly Phonics. Jolly Phonics is a fun and child centered approach to teaching literacy through actions for each of the 42 letter sounds. The multi-sensory method is very motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve.

Mathematics

Kindergarten uses the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt GO MATH! Series. This comprehensive Kindergarten program was developed to support the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. GO MATH! focuses on the students’ abilities to record, represent, solve, and explain as they develop and discover new concepts in math. GO MATH! emphasizes the following content standards, skills, and concepts:

Counting and Cardinality—know number names and the count sequences, count to tell the number of objects, and compare numbers

Students will also be exposed to interactive SMART board lessons and games that will enhance and support the curriculum.

Religion

Kindergarten uses the God Loves Us Program by Loyola Press. The God Loves Us Program recognizes young children have a readiness to learn about God. The program integrates Scripture in each lesson to help children relate the richness of our Catholic Faith to their everyday lives. Each day God will be an integral part of our routines as we begin each day with prayer as well as a prayer before eating. We will use teachable moments to pray to God to help guide us in making good decisions. The main unit themes are:

Learning about God’s Love

Growing in God’s Love

Sharing God’s Love

Celebrating God’s Love

Special Seasons and Days in the Church

Science

We use the FOSS (Full Option Science System) Next Generation Science Program which represents more than 20 years of working with teachers and students with the goal of finding the most effective ways to help all teachers teach science and all students learn science. FOSS includes a wide range of experiences that help build student understanding of science concepts. Students are actively engaged and have ownership of their learning through interactive journals and hands-on experiments. The three modules are as follows:

Trees and Weather; Earth Science

Materials and Motion; Physical Science

Animals Two by Two; Life Science

Handwriting

Kindergarten uses the Handwriting Without Tears Program. This program uses developmentally appropriate lessons, multisensory teachings, and explicit demonstrations. The students will be instructed how to use the correct grip to form upper case and lowercase letters, numbers, words, and sentences through multisensory tools with reinforcement at home.

Social Studies

Students will learn about community workers and their jobs, as well how we are part of a family and community. We will also discuss our family traditions.

Students will explore holidays at the appropriate times of the year.

Students will also complete units based on American symbols and landmarks and the Great Big World (continents).

Students will also complete a research-based project on the animals of Africa in the spring.